Tuesday, 21 May 2013

The last day of the Delta Lloyd North Sea
Regatta 2013 showed a repeat of last year, when a persistent sea fog made an
early end to the competition. This time it was a lack of wind that happened to
be the game breaker. After two hours postponement, the breeze filled in a
little bit and the marks were laid out. However, before the first classes had
raced half a mile, the wind dropped again and the boats drifted backwards with
the current. As a result, all further racing was cancelled. That leaves the
outcome of Sunday unchanged.

This year's conditions at the Delta Lloyd North
Sea Regatta were variable. From a rainy, cold and windy Friday, to a sunny
Sunday with a good breeze, to a windless and wet Monday. During the Whitsun
weekend, the ORC and IRC measured yachts for the Yeomen Challenge Trophy
(result of the inshore races) and the overall prices in the Delta Lloyd North
Sea Regatta (results offshores and inshores). The Soulmate of French Rodenburg
won the cup of the Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta, the overall price of all
classes.

IRC1:
Searching for the right setting with new sails

On Sunday, the Il Corvo (Grand Soleil 43) of
skipper Astrid de Vin took over the lead of the Elke (First 40). The team won
both the Yeoman Challenge Trophy as well as the overall price in the IRC1.
'On the first day, we had some start up problems', tells De Vin. 'We
raced duo handed in the offshores and this weekend with a complete crew, so we
had to get used to that again. In addition, we have a new set of sails and we
were searching for the right settings. On Friday, we didn't get the boat going.
Besides from tricky waves, it Not only was the wave power tricky, it was
different sailing with the new sails. However, with three matches a day you get
into the groove quickly. The second day went already better, as we scored two
bullets and a second. Yesterday, we added three wins. We have been sailing
together for two years now. We know each other well and that makes a difference.
We are very happy with this price. The competition is huge in this class. It is always close racing between the
first four.'

The Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta counted as
the National Championship in the Javelin class. The best Dutch were Olav Kerssemakers
and Marten de Groot, who finished second behind the Germans Jens
and Jan Schlittenhard. 'The whole fleet stayed close to each other,'
said Kerssemakers. 'The competition was fierce, but it remains difficult
to defeat the Germans. The two brothers have been racing together for 30 years.
Their boat handling is marvelous. We have been a duo for two years now and we
are not dissatisfied. We are improving and there's still progression. We have
made some stupid mistakes during this event. In the first race there was a
misunderstanding whether we had to make two or three butt. Many teams did three,
some only two. We thought they would be disqualified, but they turned out to
have it right. So we did an extra lap and still finished as 8th. In yesterday's
last race, we were leading for two laps, when the spinnaker got stuck under the
boat. We were just a little too late with dropping and if the kite hits the
water, you go from top speed to a standstill. We lost a quarter of an hour, but
managed to overtake five boats. There's plenty of room to improve.'

Other handicap classes

The victories in the other handicap classes went to the Havoc (IRC2-3),
Soulmate (ORC 1), stone-curlew (ORC 2) and the Schaap Shipcare (ORC 3 - 4).

The Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta presented two
new classes, the Olympic Nacra 17 catamaran and kite surfing. The Nacra 17
sailors will be back this summer for their first Nacra 17 Worlds, to be held
from 20 to 27 July off the Scheveningen coast. The Dutch national team members
Groeneveld and Begemann took this weekend's victory. Heemskerk/Tentij won the
F18 battle, Vercouteren/Pieters in the F16, Van Gorp/Van Gisbergen in the
Dart18 and Zwager/Schraven in the Hobie16.

The only official racing for the kitesurfers
was on Sunday with ideal conditions. A total of 21 competitors lined up at two
starts. Rolf van der Vlugt won the course raceboarders, an Olympic course, and
Bram de Jeu took victory in the slalom races.

Gazprom Swan 60 in action. Image copyright Sander van der Borch

Swan
60

The Russian team Bronensec (Gazprom) and the
German team SGM were competing with each other to promote the Swan 60 class in
the Netherlands. According to Tommaso Chieffi, tactician of the winning
Bronensec, the Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta was a good start to the season.
'It's an opportunity to train the new team members and to try other
things. We won the eight races, but the Germans were getting better and became
a growing competitor for us.' The German crew led by Tim Kröger (Whitbread
and America's Cup veteran) is a project for young German sailors to be trained
for offshore sailing, in the so-called German Youth Offshore challenge. They
only started sailing together four days prior to the Delta Lloyd North Sea
Regatta. This was their first event, leading up to the Gazprom 2013 Swan 60
World Championships in July in Cowes.

Persistency and Determination...

Quintessential All Blacks ad.

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